Before the artist’s thoughts can appear on the sub-painting, it is necessary to decide on the technique that is best suited to conveying what is the essence of the painting.
Painters often make preparatory sketches and then outline in a simple and clear way what they would like to develop later in a more advanced process. In doing so, they reach for a variety of tools and techniques: pencil, marker, charcoal, pastel, watercolour, gouache, acrylic paint and even digital techniques. What these working methods have in common is that they make a sketch as quickly as possible. Drawing techniques are great for recording light value, shape, line. However, they have limited colour possibilities, so the artist reaches for paint. A simple compromise is to use pastels, which combine the possibilities of drawing and painting.
For this reason, we often read the dry pastel technique as a means used somewhere along the way to create a proper and final work painted with techniques considered more permanent and more ‘worthy’ of final visualisation.
However, many artists working with pastels have found in them the potential to paint finished works and not require a change of technique to represent the painter’s final vision. For them, the specific properties of pastels are enough to define a form of work that needs no further elaboration.
The origins of the dry pastel technique date back to the Renaissance period. It was then that pure pigment began to be mixed with possibly colourless clays. The result was a kind of soft paste, which gave the technique its name. It was shaped into sticks and dried. Nowadays, a trace amount of binder is used to bind the pigment, so that the pigment remains bound in stick form. This characteristic of pastels means that we are painting practically with the very finely ground pigment itself. The strength of the effect of the colour in this form can be admired by rubbing the almost pure pigment into the substrate. This is an unquestionable advantage of pastels. We have the possibility of using colour in its most elementary form and saturation.
By gradual pressure, we achieve a wide tonal range. Dry pastel can be rubbed to produce amazing Leonardo “sfumato” effects. You can dilute the pigment already applied to the paper with water or alcohol to create watercolour-like effects. Pastelists sometimes use this method to achieve interesting underpainting. Achieving fine detail is also possible, as we can see, for example, from the artists of the Rococo period, who did not yet have the option of using wood-bound pastels to create a crayon form as they do today. By using hatching, melting, dotting, layering, blending and other gestures, it is possible to achieve an incredibly evocative painterly layer. In addition, we have the option of using paper and other substrates of varying gradations and grits. We hold the stick or pastel crayon in our fingers and feel the resistance of the substrate directly. Through such contact, our pastel traces can be very characteristic and reflect our temperament just like our handwriting.
The pastel remains on the substrate only mechanically, being pressed between the paper fibres and the recesses. For this reason, we use colourless fixatives to fix and protect the work, which have a minimal effect on the colour. Sometimes they can change the character of the colour plane slightly, especially in the lower, darker registers. We protect the work from damage behind the glass, which can interfere a little with the perception of the image. However, in the age of ‘opti-white’ clear glass and anti-reflective coatings, we can minimise this negative effect.
Today, pastels made by good brands are an excellent and safe painting medium, provided that the necessary production regime is observed.
Over the centuries, outstanding personalities using the soft pastel technique have proven that it is a very versatile medium. Just to mention a few of the world’s names: Jean-Étienne Liotard, Rosalba Carriera, Jean Siméon Chardin, Edgar Degas, Jean-François Millet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassatt, Pablo Picasso. In Poland, the real heyday of pastel came at the turn of the 20th century. Outstanding masters of native pastel art were Stanisław Wyspiański, Leon Wyczółkowski, Teodor Axentowicz, Władysław Ślewiński, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz.
Edgar Degas made pastel a real training ground for his painting. He constantly experimented and developed this technique. The painterly effects he achieved are still a well of knowledge for pastelists today. It can be said that Degas elevated pastel to a level that proves that this technique is equal to any other and deserves its rightful place.
Stanisław Wyspiański created forms that were linear, colourful and specific only to himself. The positioning of pastels between drawing and painting finds exceptional confirmation in his works.
Teodor Axentowicz makes characteristic use of a nervous pastel line, contrasting it with the gentler treatment of the painterly layer on the faces of his portraits. In doing so, he employs a very sophisticated colour scheme that surprises us with rarely seen harmonies.
A wide spectrum of vivid colours and forms is the domain of the paintings of Witkacy, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso. As if the opposite side is shown to us by the subdued and intimate art of Jean François Millet.
Interestingly, the subjects of pastels are very often portraits. It seems as if pastel was created to create sensitive and subtle representations of people and complex personalities hidden behind the image. It proves that pastel has a special way of transferring complex emotions to what we see behind an impartial and cool glass.
ROMAN WRZEŚKIEWICZ
He lives in Ozorków. Art has been his fascination since his youth. He learns it purely out of pleasure. He studied at the State Higher School of Visual Arts in Łódź (now the Academy of Fine Arts) in the field of graphics and painting and at the Higher School of Humanities and Economics in Łódź in the field of Computer Graphic Design. His works can be found not only in private collectors in Poland, but also in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Great Britain, Singapore and Bahrain.
The favourite painting technique he practices is soft pastel.
He also paints landscapes, portraits and abstractions in oil and acrylic.
Exhibitions:
– individual exhibition of painting and drawing in Ozorków; 2017.
– collective exhibition in Leźnica Wielka; 2020r.
– group painting exhibition in Ozorków; May-June 2022.
– individual exhibition of painting and drawing in Ozorków; October 2022.
– individual exhibition of painting and drawing in Częstochowa; January-February 2023.
– individual exhibition of painting and drawing in Łódź; February 2023.
– individual exhibition of paintings and drawings in Zgierz; March 2023.
– individual exhibition of painting and drawing in Leszczynek / Kutno; May 2023.
I paint using several techniques: dry pastel, acrylic, oil. I make pencil drawings. I have been perfecting the dry pastel technique for 10 years and I mainly focus on it. It corresponds to my predispositions and artistic intentions. I paint landscapes, portraits, abstractions. I also do not avoid other forms of painting. I have an open mind to what is happening in art around me. I visit exhibitions, read books and art magazines. Art history is one of my many fascinations.
I also photograph and write about art. I care about the development of other artists. I paint together with my 12-year-old son, whose works I often present at exhibitions together with mine. I organize meetings to popularize art with children, teenagers, adults and disabled people. I love music and nature. I live in Ozorków near Łódź. I work professionally in printing. I am educated in two fields: technical and artistic. I studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Łódź. Since last year, I have been showing my paintings at exhibitions all over Poland (several exhibitions), and next year the exhibition will go abroad.
Exploring the pastel technique led to the creation of a large series of works – about 50 paintings. Why pastel? There are at least several reasons. I would describe one of the most important ones as follows:
In my opinion, painting with pastels is close to drawing in the sense that, like a pencil, a hard piece of pastel transfers the drawing gesture directly from the fingers to the paper. The feeling of almost direct contact with the painted surface is crucial. Gradation of pressure results in the amount of pigment rubbed into the painting. Finger movements and gestures are transmitted to the ground in a similar way to the way a seismograph pen transfers earth vibrations to the ribbon moving beneath it. For this reason, the painterly, semi-drawing gesture is very direct. Like writing with a pen. If I need to achieve a soft, painterly look, I can manipulate the already applied pigment using a brush, rubbing with my finger, or gentle pressure. However, where necessary, I use the direct gesture described above. This combination of dynamics and painting suits my needs very well and builds a fabric that reflects my personality and the intended message.
Through opposition – a brush with water or oil paint softens the gesture. In order to build a painting tissue that is consistent with my ideas, I have to work completely differently and discover other workshop methods. Curiosity and an attempt to prove my ability to work with a brush and paints, in turn, lead to the creation of acrylic paintings, which I also present in a smaller volume at the exhibition.
So pastel dominates my painting adventure. I think that I am internally more of a graphic designer than a painter, but I persisted in working with colors because I am captivated by their exceptionally direct effect on our senses, through which color creates sudden and deep emotions.
I chose the dozen or so pastels presented to show as precisely as possible what is the center of my inner world. I am inspired by nature and its visual manifestations. However, it is not my goal to reflect the phenomena of inanimate and animate nature. It is rather an attempt to show human emotions through a somewhat selective treatment of natural light, natural matter and its transformations as materials. The state of mind is the basis of my landscapes. How successful this is, I leave it to the recipient to judge.
Portraits constitute a separate group. This, in turn, is a natural and obvious attempt to tell with visual means what I see in the portrayed character. For me, the distant goal and point of reference are the works of masters: Rembrandt, Hals, Van Dyck, Van Gogh and even Bacon.
Roman Wrześkiewicz 2023
30.10.2023 Stockholm
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